Roadside Attractions: 10 Worthy Detours in Northern Arizona

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If you’re planning a northern Arizona road trip itinerary, you already know to visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (check out the extensive Grand Canyon trip-planning guide I wrote after working there a few seasons), Sedona (these hikes are my favorite), or maybe Page for Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon (“41 Amazing Things To Do In Page, Arizona, According To A Local“). Don’t forget our state has so much more to offer, especially for road trippers who have the flexibility to get off the typical flight paths or shuttle routes. After living in the area for years, I’ve chosen ten of my favorite roadside attractions in northern Arizona – all only a short drive from the Grand Canyon or Sedona! These road trips stops can also be done as day trips from Flagstaff.

Grand Canyon Caverns & Inn

The caverns are not actually in the Grand Canyon itself – neither the National Park, nor the greater bounds of the geological area that constitutes the canyon. This spot is located in Peach Springs, which is the closest town to Havasupai if you have plans (and permits) to hike to Havasu Falls. Coming from the South Rim, you’d exit the southern entrance to Williams and then head west on I-40, but in Seligman be sure to get off on Route 66 towards Peach Springs instead of continuing on I-40 to Kingman.

These caverns have a lot going for them besides stalagmites. There is also an underground restaurant called the Cavern Grotto, a hotel “room”, and a wedding chapel you can book reservations for. There’s a hoard of emergency food and water stored here as well, so that the caves can serve as a bunker in case of apocalypse (when COVID first hit I conveniently remembered this). They found 11,000 year old remains of a giant sloth that fell in the caverns, and if you take the Cave Tour you can see the scratch marks where he tried to claw his way back out. You’ll also see a mummified bobcat who met a similar fate in more recent history. All of the strangeness makes the Grand Canyon Caverns one of the best roadside attractions in northern Arizona.

The above-ground attractions are an added treat of Route 66 charm. There’s a regular inn and a retro diner called the Cavern Grill with vintage cars parked, inexplicably, next to giant dinosaur statues.

Two Guns Ghost Town

Two Guns is an abandoned ghost town along Route 66 near Winslow (yes, you might as well also go stand on a corner in Winslow, Arizona while you’re here) with a strange, layered backstory. I first found it on Atlas Obscura, where the alleged saga and curse of Two Guns is best described.

It’s a story of pioneer ambition. A cold blooded gunpoint murder. An enterprising snake oil salesman named Harry “Two Guns” Miller who told everyone he was full-blooded Apache and to call him Chief Crazy Thunder, even though I’m pretty sure he was white. It’s basically the story of the original Joe Exotic, complete with two mountain lion maulings, a gila monster bite, and a devastating fire. But before all that, legend says it was the site where Navajo took bloody revenge on the Apache for a prior raid and mass slaughter. In an act of retaliation, the Navajo tracked the Apache here, finding them and their horses hiding in an underground cave. They started a fire at the mouth of the cave to trap the Apache inside, and therefore the location of their suffocation is now dubbed The Apache Death Cave.

Today, graffiti covers nearly every surface of the remaining ruins of the gas station, pool, and other buildings on-site. I get the feeling it’s a popular place for squatters. You can enter the Apache Death Cave (the final two photos in the gallery), but descending into the Death Cave seems disrespectful and you may unleash another curse like what Harry Miller suffered. This is all if you believe the words of storyteller Maurice Kildare, which is probably inadvisable. Regardless, it’s still a fun northern Arizona road trip stop.

Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest is about two hours east of Flagstaff. It’s strange how close this National Park is to other uniquely different landscapes, like the Grand Canyon and Sunset Crater. Arizona just makes no sense sometimes. You should have to get on a rocket ship in order to arrive someplace so foreign in such a short timeframe.

When I visit this park, I feel as if I’ve entered a time, not a place – the dinosaur age. The badlands here are sparse, dry, vast, colorful, and dotted with thousands of chunks of petrified wood. These fossilized trees from millions of years ago turned into rainbow-colored rock as a result of being preserved in Triassic mineral-rich bogs. Looking at the mudstone and sandstone of the Chinle Formation now, it’s difficult to imagine that this land was once tropical, although your eye will occasionally focus in on what looks like ancient tributaries swirling across the badlands.

Download an audio driving tour of Petrified Forest National Park before you set off! There will be plenty of time to listen along as you drive from trailhead to trailhead or scenic viewpoint to viewpoint. This could be a fun way to learn about fossils and the geology of the park.

The trees themselves are interesting enough on their own, but there are many reasons this park is one of the best road trip destinations in northern Arizona. One of the coolest artifacts is the Agate House, which was a Native dwelling made out of a kaleidoscope of petrified wood.

As a hiker, my favorite trail to walk is the Blue Mesa Trail, where you’ll see Candyland-esque gumdrop-shaped mounds of purple and white. This is not really a hiker’s park, mind you. Each walk on the main tourist map is relatively short and simple. However, it is possible to get a permit to camp in the backcountry here. Randy Langstraat has an awesome trip report about his experience doing this.

Otherwise, in many ways it’s really a drive-through park where you’ll pull off at different viewpoints as you go along. Using this strategy, you can cover just about everything in a day. If you’re lucky, you may spot pronghorn like the one running alongside my car in my gallery above!

Note there are two entrances. Coming from Flagstaff, I like to enter on the side that has the Rainbow Forest Museum with all the dinosaur fossils (at Holbrook you’ll get off on US-180) and then exit through the Painted Desert at I-40. On the way here/back you could also stop at Two Guns, or the Meteor Crater Natural Landmark.

Walnut Canyon National Monument

Walnut Canyon is only a 20 minute drive from central Flagstaff. You can actually hike there via the Arizona Trail, though it would take you awhile depending on your starting point. Walnut Canyon is a deep crevice in the earth where, somehow, Native Americans managed to build cliff dwellings into the walls. I find this completely amazing, and I wish I could live this way today. They must have navigated safe routes to descend from the rim to the cliff dwelling sites. Today the path is paved. It would have been an ideal place to live considering they could continue descending further down to collect water from Walnut Creek, and plenty of nutritious prickly pear and walnuts abound.

Flintstones Fever Dream and Raptor Ranch

Everyone who drives to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon via the southern entrance (from Williams, rather than east from Cameron) will have to pass through the town of Valle, and will therefore definitely notice the Flintstones Bedrock City roadside theme park. It’s clearly a remnant of a bygone area, perhaps once an exciting stop for road trippers but now verging on uncanny valley. For this reason, it may be worth a stop if you like “weird”, although you have to pay to come in and check out the life-size cartoon city. If you have young children with you, there are playground elements that make the stop more fun.

The property was sold in 2019 and rebranded as Raptor Ranch, so the cooler attraction onsite is now the falcons and other birds of prey, but they’ve kept Bedrock City alive too since road trippers seemed to be fond of it. Admission to Raptor Ranch is $10, and there is an RV park with glamping tents.

My favorite ever story about this place is when Clazz was visiting the Grand Canyon from Scotland. The grandson of the founder of Bedrock City took them around the theme park at nighttime, then had them watch Rocky Horror Picture Show in the theater, which is the strangest combination of references to put together in one sentence.

Tuzigoot National Monument, Montezuma Castle, and V Bar V Heritage Site

These three Native American historical sites can be visited in one day, as they’re all located within about 30 minutes of each other near Camp Verde. This is about one hour south of Flagstaff, or two and a half hours from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Camp Verde is blessed with some of the most impressive road trip stops in northern Arizona.

Montezuma Castle National Monument is a cliff dwelling similar to the ones found in Walnut Canyon, but it’s quite visually distinct and has a tall, imposing tower shape like the ones at Colorado’s Mesa Verde. It was built by the Sinagua people into the side of a limestone cliff face. They also built the hilltop pueblo/village known as Tuzigoot National Monument, which has a perfect vantage point for looking out over the beautiful Verde Valley.

According to the Forest Service, the nearby V Bar V Heritage Site is “the largest known petroglyph site in the Verde Valley, as well as being one of the best-preserved.” When I went, a volunteer was onsite giving an interpretive talk about the history and possible meanings of the petroglyphs, which I found fascinating. There are hundreds of them across this one rock formation. I wonder why this site was particularly important to the artists?

If you’re not driving yourself, there are guided day trips you can book to visit Montezuma and/or Tuzigoot from Phoenix, Scottsdale, or Sedona.

Flagstaff Public Art Walk

Speaking of art, how about the modern kind? Here in Flagstaff, many different cultures collide and make our little mountain town unique. People know of Flagstaff as a Route 66 town, or maybe as the gateway to the Grand Canyon, but it’s got so much of its own rich history. It seems like road trippers may stop here for a bite, but they miss all of our little details. You can find a walking map of downtown Flagstaff murals here, and fun articles about some of the artists here and here. I like the artist Chip Thomas aka Jetsonoramo’s website, where he posts photos of beautiful murals from throughout the state.

If you’re focusing your trip only on Flagstaff, check out my post about hikes, food, historical sites, and more in Flagstaff, Arizona:

Bearizona Wildlife Park

I get so excited about visiting Bearizona in Williams. Any time I so much as say the name, people kind of laugh, and then when I explain the concept of a drive-through animal park, there’s a few more laughs but also a burgeoning sense of intrigue. Go with the intrigue; this place is cool as hell. You drive into the park through herds of wolves, bears, and bison that are just wandering around out in the open. Be sure to lock your doors and stay in your vehicle.

I love that the animals are in a natural habitat with lots of space. My only concern is that it still sort of feels like a zoo. But, according to Williams-Grand Canyon News, “Vanessa Stoffel, Bearizona’s chief operating officer…said that only one of the cubs on exhibit at Bearizona was born at the park and more than half of Bearizona’s animal population has been acquired from rescue situations. ‘Bearizona Wildlife Park’s breeding programs are controlled and done on a limited basis so that we have enough resources for our existing animal residents, as well as those that are facing euthanasia elsewhere and in need of sanctuary,’ she wrote.” An article in the Great Falls Tribune reports that Bearizona saves orphaned cubs. And, the conservation section of Bearizona’s website explains that they are a “Home for Orphaned or Confiscated Wildlife: Over half of the animals that call Bearizona home are rescued or rehabilitated animals. Once here, they will spend the remainder of their lives in large naturalistic enclosures; digging, climbing, swimming, and playing with one another.” All of this makes me feel good about patronizing Bearizona and seeing it as an educational opportunity.

Museum of Northern Arizona

The Museum of Northern Arizona is small and won’t take up a ton of your day, but if you are in Flagstaff anyway it’s a great road trip stop. It has exhibits on archaeological and cultural history as well as paleontology. There are dinosaur and plant fossils excavated locally, Native American artifacts, and when I was there, a temporary exhibit of art that students from nearby schools created to fuse pop culture and Native culture. Every summer they also have a Heritage Festival featuring dancers, artists, and craftsmen.

You could make a day out of it by also visiting Flagstaff’s Pioneer Museum (*2023 update – temporarily closed) or Riordan Mansion State Historic Park.

Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monument

More ruins! You could do an entire road trip visiting only Native American ruins and petroglyphs in Arizona. Wupatki National Monument is only 30 minutes north of Flagstaff (you could stop here on the way to/from the eastern “Desert View” entrance of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon via Cameron). When you show your Park Pass or pay for entry to Wupatki, that will also get you entry to see Sunset Crater.

This location was an important trading hub where different peoples throughout the region congregated. One of the theories I read about the open circular structure above was that it is a ball court for sports and ceremonies!

The eruption of Sunset Crater over 900 years ago forever changed the landscape and the farming practices of local peoples. Sunset Crater is the youngest volcano in the San Francisco Volcanic Field, which apparently contains 600 volcanos. Humphreys Peak, Flagstaff’s highest mountain at 12,633ft, and all the San Francisco Peaks are actually extinct volcanos. There are a few relaxing hikes you can do around Sunset Crater. The grey ash-colored terrain and twisted trees definitely fit expectations.

If you’re not driving yourself, you can book a guided tour to Wupatki from Sedona or Flagstaff or from Phoenix.

Northern Arizona has a rich history when it comes to Native American populations, Wild West expansion, African American industriousness during the Great Migration, and millions of years of geological and archaeological changes that you can see with the naked eye. Spend a little extra time during your northern Arizona road trip getting to know the areas surrounding the popular tourist hubs of the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Page, and it will only bolster your appreciation and understanding of our beautiful high desert sanctuary.

🏨 Find budget hostels in northern Arizona here, and standard hotel options here.
✈️ Coming to Arizona from further afield? Use an Airalo eSIM for affordable international cell data and don’t forget to protect your investment with travel insurance.

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